Bill to fast track foreclosures moves forward

A bill that would hasten the foreclosure process in Florida appears to be gaining momentum despite strident criticism from consumer advocates who say it would trample homeowners' rights.

The bill passed its first Senate committee Monday after already clearing two House committees, with three weeks remaining in the session.

Debate over the proposed law — co-sponsored in the House by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Parrish — remains emotional. One Port Charlotte homeowner called lawmakers backing the bill a "disgrace" while others accused them of seeking to undercut private property rights in favor of supporting lenders.

The Senate Judiciary Committee members who advanced the proposal, which would require homeowners to quickly mount a defense to prevent a foreclosure on their property, said they sympathized with many of the concerns and described the legislation as a work in process. But they also said that opponents are misreading the bill and overlooking important consumer protections.

Nearly a dozen consumer activists and homeowners battling foreclosure in this region and across Florida sharply criticized the bill, arguing that the legislation will make fighting fraudulent foreclosure actions more difficult. Last week, the legislation drew about 100 protesters to the Capitol.

"It's so egregious it's unconscionable," said Sarasota resident Maia Shaffer, who has organized homeowners to fight the legislation through her Mortgage Justice organization. "To put it simply, it's a mess."

But the Republican senators who passed the bill on a party-line, 5-2 vote said that the backlog of foreclosures is too big to ignore and any concerns can be addressed in future hearings.

Bill sponsor Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, said Florida's real estate market "will not come back with gusto" until the 368,000 foreclosure cases now working through the court system are cleared.

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Latvala's legislation would speed foreclosures in a variety of ways:

•Condominium and homeowners associations would have more power to move cases along.

•Greater efforts would be made to determine if properties are abandoned by empowering private process servers to investigate.

•Judges would have more leeway to quickly decide if a homeowner's defense is inadequate.

Supporters also emphasized the increased focus on abandoned properties in the bill.

Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, noted a police officer recently was killed in his area during a raid on methamphetamine lab established in an abandoned home.

Gillis, 47, struggled to make his mortgage payments after his notary business declined in the Great Recession and has been fighting foreclosure for four years.

He said the documents presented by his bank are fraudulent and that nothing in the proposed legislation addresses widespread accusations of foreclosure fraud.

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"You have an obligation to represent the people and not the banks," Gillis said.

Last week, hundreds of activists — some of them also dealing with shoddy paperwork — traveled to Tallahassee to protest the foreclosure measures. Many were affiliated with homeowners' rights groups that have sprung up in the last few years as Florida's foreclosure rate spiked to among the highest in the nation.

But a majority of legislators appear more focused on the time it takes for a foreclosure case to wind its way through the Florida courts: an average of 676 days compared with 318 days nationally.

EARLIER

A push to speed up foreclosures moved forward in the Senate Monday on a party-line vote, indicating the issue could be gaining momentum after years of inaction.

Nearly a dozen activists spoke against the legislation as a curb on their legal rights that could fast track fraudulent foreclosures.

Bill sponsor Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, said the legislation is necessary to help the real estate market recover and clear a backlog of 368,000 foreclosure cases throughout the state.

While acknowledging the bill has flaws, senators said the foreclosure problem is too important to ignore. Most said they were particularly concerned about the issue of abandoned homes and wanted to support legislation that aims to rapidly identify and resell abandoned properties.

Both Democrats on the committee voted against the legislation, while all five Republicans voted in favor.

The bill must pass two more committees in the Senate and one more in the House before coming up for a full vote in each chamber.

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From earlier:

Homeowners' rights activists continue to pressure lawmakers over a controversial bill intended to speed up the foreclosure process.

More than a dozen activists, including eight from the Sarasota region who regularly meet as part of the Mortgage Justice group, traveled to the Capitol today to protest the legislation during a Senate committee hearing.

Port Charlotte resident Deborah Lilley, 47, is facing foreclosure and concerned that speeding the process could limit the ability of homeowners to fight in court.

"If you're fighting and you're in the right it should take longer," Lilley said before the meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning.

The foreclosure bill has already passed two committees in the House. Today is the first time the legislation will be heard in the Senate. Nearly 100 activists held a rally outside the Capitol building last week to protest the legislation, which supports say would help the housing market recover more rapidly.

The Judiciary committee is scheduled to vote on the bill this afternoon.

Last modified: February 21, 2012
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